What did you do to your non-G body project today? [2020]

[81cutlass]

Previous owner of the house must have remodeled the basement bathroom pretty shortly before the sale. It did what they wanted, it looked good in the walk through but after a year living here there's been a lot of annoyances come up.

For whatever reason the vanity was 24" wide and had a 6" gap between the wall and the side. I'm assuming when they built the bathroom originally they used a 32" vanity and when they replaced it they bought the cheapest one and stuck the drain in the middle. There was a really dumb 6" wasted space, there was limited storage space and I have a deep down hatred for white cabinets.

Wife found a new never installed 32" vanity for $220 on FB. Looked like a $380ish unit from home depot. Got there turned out the guy must buy overstock returned or closeout stuff, offered $150, got it for $165.

Had to reroute the drain a bit but it's a good improvement. Also swapped the towel rack from the old one that looked like it came out if a bad 1980's attempt to clone something that came out of a hunting lodge.

Still need to swap the light fixture since that also looks like a bad 80's attempt at something that belongs in a hunting lodge but that's farther down the list.

Out with the old

And the new

And built a new mail box post to replace the rotting out one that was put in crooked.

 

[Supercharged111]

Care to describe what knockback is and why it's a $1200 problem? I have no familiarity with that term.

As you go around a corner in the conditions in my above video, the hubs can flex which, with 1 piece rotors, will knock the brake pads back into the caliper giving you a long pedal into the next corner. Coming out of the 3 corner carousel onto the front straight makes it really bad. The pedal height becomes inconsistent and it's difficult to be consistent at the limit. It also makes it impossible to get a heel/toe downshift in as pedal heights are tweaked for a regular height brake pedal. Larger hubs did make it better, but the problem persists. The expensive *ss rotors I just ordered are 2 piece, so separate reusable aluminum hat and rotor ring. The rotor rings will last years and not 3 events like the parts store crap I've endured for so long. They're bolted to the hats but there's a gap. They're not bolted tightly together, rather the ring is allowed to float and absorb the flexing of the hub without passing that onto the pads and pushing them back into the calipers. With the new Truetrac diff out back and custom c clips, I measured .004" endplay on the right rear axle. Never measured the LR, didn't see a need as the plug floats in the diff unlike a fixed pin in a regular diff. Converting to Ford 9" style bearings and eliminating the c clips altogether is also on my to do list. Hope that answers the question. I have to remind myself you guys are mostly drag with some circle track.

 

[Supercharged111]

Previous owner of the house must have remodeled the basement bathroom pretty shortly before the sale. It did what they wanted, it looked good in the walk through but after a year living here there's been a lot of annoyances come up.

For whatever reason the vanity was 24" wide and had a 6" gap between the wall and the side. I'm assuming when they built the bathroom originally they used a 32" vanity and when they replaced it they bought the cheapest one and stuck the drain in the middle. There was a really dumb 6" wasted space, there was limited storage space and I have a deep down hatred for white cabinets.

Wife found a new never installed 32" vanity for $220 on FB. Looked like a $380ish unit from home depot. Got there turned out the guy must buy overstock returned or closeout stuff, offered $150, got it for $165.

Had to reroute the drain a bit but it's a good improvement. Also swapped the towel rack from the old one that looked like it came out if a bad 1980's attempt to clone something that came out of a hunting lodge.

Still need to swap the light fixture since that also looks like a bad 80's attempt at something that belongs in a hunting lodge but that's farther down the list.

Out with the oldView attachment 155405

And the new
View attachment 155406

And built a new mail box post to replace the rotting out one that was put in crooked.

View attachment 155407

You gonna put headers on the new box?

 

[scoti]

Today I started on the 'drilling' portion for a Tie-rod insert on the CPP modular spindles for my 64 C10 build. This is a jacked-up deal. You can't get the spindle ALIGNED & CLAMPED in a press (well, @ least in our drill press) to allow a nice straight motion. These spindles already got reamed (18v drill by hand) in an attempt to utilize GM 4x4 1-ton TRE's (the TRE holes were oversized even for an OE spec TRE). An OE spec TRE won't work in this narrowed track width/R&P front set-up due to it's length. The 1-ton spec TRE fit after reaming & is a much better length but was too close when cycling the suspension travel & would have destroyed the boot in short order so heim joints it is.

I tried drilling w/it in place on the chassis after seeing more than one You-Tube video doing it that way.
I used a ratchet strap for locking it in one spot & preventing it from moving.
Since the spindles already got reamed in an attempt to utilize the 1-ton TRE's the top end was close to the required ID.
I used a uni-bit to start the process as the steps allowed the appropriate size bit some depth to start things off.
I also used the uni-bit & pre-drilled from the bottom side to remove as much extra material as possible because the 3/4 & 7/8 bits are no joke.

I worked as slow as possible to keep the bits cool. Constantly dipped them in cutting fluid during the process. I tried/started w/the 1/2" drill but found my 18v offered the best speed control. It drilled ok, but not 'good'.

The bits bite way too much which pulled the cutting. When it was done, the top of the hole def had wiggle vs the bottom portion (this was why I wanted to use the drill press). I purchased some 'over-sized' press-fit bushings & although the one I did required me to use the hydraulic press to seat it flush, I don't like the fact it had play near the top when only partially in.

I re-grouped & went back to try the drill press again for the 2nd one. Not happening. I guess tomorrow I'll see if I can rig things up on a shop table & use a magnetic base drill press we have (our maint group has it somewhere in the building & I'll have to get w/the day shift guys to find it's location).
Attached Images

 

[Supercharged111]

What's with the insert there? I feel like I'm missing something.

 

[scoti]

What's with the insert there? I feel like I'm missing something.

Insert is for the 5/8" bolt for the TRE (heim).

 

[CopperNick]

Attached a pair of heavy washers to the new outer rocker panel act as leverage points so I could "persuade" it to line up more precisely while I set some tacks with my MIG. Only regret is that I wasn't able to buy a Gas Mig decades ago. Would have saved a lot of grunt work. Only thing being the current generation of multi process shoe box units hadn't even been dreamed of back then.

Went back along the seam and finished it off, touched up some of the plug welds to make finishing easier. Started to dress the seam may need to score a new Dremel motor when this is all over as this one is not a happy camper no mo'. Yeah, could do it with an air die grinder motor but finding micro sized wheels and tips that can get fitted into very tight spaces can be difficult and they get used up quickly. Dremel does the job, you just have to be polite and not lean on it like you are trying to bore 3/4 inch holes into 1" plate using a very dull bit and the wrong spindle speed.

Plan is to finish off that seam this PM and move on to the cab corner and get it fitted and possibly even tacked in.

Nick

 

[Supercharged111]

Insert is for the 5/8" bolt for the TRE (heim).

Ahh, my Camaro knuckles need drilled to get to 5/8". That's just a big hole then.

 

[scoti]

Ahh, my Camaro knuckles need drilled to get to 5/8". That's just a big hole then.

The 'minor' part of this TRE hole of the aftermarket C10 spindle was larger than 5/8" already. Apparently CPP has issues w/QC still. The standard is swapping to the heim ends. I wanted to keep a true TRE if possible so I tried reaming for the larger 4wd 1-ton first but it was too close. The 5/8" ID hole required the 7/8" OD bushing for it to work.

I'm curious though.... Did you drill yours 'free-hand' or in a press fixture?

 

[Supercharged111]

The 'minor' part of this TRE hole of the aftermarket C10 spindle was larger than 5/8" already. Apparently CPP has issues w/QC still. The standard is swapping to the heim ends. I wanted to keep a true TRE if possible so I tried reaming for the larger 4wd 1-ton first but it was too close. The 5/8" ID hole required the 7/8" OD bushing for it to work.

I'm curious though.... Did you drill yours 'free-hand' or in a press fixture?

Not sure, haven't done it yet. I was on track to have my bump steer kit installed with the covid "teleworking", but now summer's here and I'm in survival mode with the race car. And teleworking is a distant memory. I was thinking I'd just freehand the thing, but planned to ask someone who's done it before if that's a bad idea. I think it'll be easier for me because I won't be dealing with a spacer.